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54 results for “Tropical environment”
Figure 1 in The European Tertiary Neritiliidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neritopsina): indicators of tropical submarine cave environments and freshwater faunas
Figure 1. Location of the fossil localities (★).
An interpolated biogeographic framework for tropical Africa using plant species distributions and the physical environment
<p><strong>Aim:</strong> Existing phytogeographic frameworks for tropical Africa lack either spatial completeness, unit definitions smaller than the regional scale, or a quantitative approach. We investigate whether physical environmental variables can be used to interpolate floristically defined vegetation units, presenting an interpolated, hierarchical, quantitative phytogeographic framework for tropical Africa, which is compared to previously defined regions.</p> <p><strong>Location: </strong>Tropical mainland Africa 24°N to 24°S.</p> <p><strong>Taxon: </strong>31,046 vascular plant species and infraspecific taxa.</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>We calculate a betasim dissimilarity matrix from a comprehensive whole-flora database of plant species distributions. We investigate environmental correlates of floristic turnover with local non-metric multidimensional scaling. We derive a hierarchical biogeographic framework by clustering the dissimilarity matrix. The framework is modelled using a classification decision tree method and 12 physical environmental variables to interpolate and downscale the framework across the study region.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Floristic turnover is related strongly to water availability and temperature, with smaller contributions from land cover, topographic ruggedness and lithology. Region can be predicted with 90% accuracy by the model. We define 19 regions and 99 districts. We find a novel arrangement of the arid regions. Regional subdivision within the savanna biome is supported with minor variation to borders. Within the forests of west and central Africa, our whole-flora gridded regionalisation supports the divisions identified by a previous analysis of trees only.</p> <p><strong>Main conclusions:</strong> Physical environmental variables can be used to predict floristically defined vegetation units with very high accuracy, and the approach could be pursued for other inc ompletely sampled taxa and areas outside of tropical Africa. Geographic coherence is higher than in previous quantitative phytoregional definitions. For most tropical African vascular plant species, we provide predictions of which species will occur within each mapped district and region of tropical Africa. The framework should be useful for future studies in ecology, evolution and conservation.</p>
Environment differentially affects the functional and phylogenetic structures of plant communities in a dry evergreen Afromontane tropical forest
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Testing how local environmental conditions influence plant community assembly is important to understand the underlying mechanisms that promote and/or maintain biodiversity. Functional traits are used to find the broad spectrum of resource use strategies that plants use to</span><span> respond to environmental variation</span><span>. The patterns and drivers of plant community assembly through the lens of traits and phylogeny, however, remain to be studied in a uniquely biodiversity rich but poorly known fragmented dry Afromontane forest of Ethiopia. Here, we combined trait and community phylogenetic data from thirty sampling plots of 20 × 20 m size to determine the functional and phylogenetic structures and their drivers in a fragmented, human-dominated dry evergreen Afromontane forest. We found phylogenetic and functional clustering of plants in which the effect of environment was found to be trait specific. A weak phylogenetic signal for traits was detected suggesting that species resource use strategies may not be inferred using species phylogenetic distance. Additionally, we found functional traits to be weak in predicting species abundance distribution. Overall, while this study shows a non-random community assembly pattern, it also highlights the importance of deterministic processes being trait specific. </span></p>
Rethinking Gloger’s Rule: climate, light environments and color in a large family of tropical birds (Furnariidae)
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Environment differentially affects the functional and phylogenetic structures of plant communities in a dry evergreen Afromontane tropical forest
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Genotype-environment interaction reveals varied developmental responses to unpredictable host phenology in a tropical insect
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Effects of species richness and turnover on ecosystem functioning in heterogeneous environments of two tropical mountains
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Data from: Light environment influences mating behaviours during the early stages of divergence in tropical butterflies
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An interpolated biogeographic framework for tropical Africa using plant species distributions and the physical environment
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Characterizing the nectar microbiome of the non-native tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in an urban environment
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Diet-manipulated body condition affects onset and speed of moult in Common Bulbuls in a tropical environment
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Data from: Tropical ant communities under agroforestry can be diverse but lack trait-and-environment associations
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Data from: Seasonal differences in baseline innate immune function are better explained by environment than annual cycle stage in a year-round breeding tropical songbird
1. Seasonal variation in innate immunity is often attributed to either temporal environmental variation or to life history trade-offs that arise from specific annual cycle stages but decoupling them is difficult in natural populations. 2. Here, we effectively decouple seasonal environmental variation from annual cycle stage effects by exploiting cross-seasonal breeding and moult in the tropical Common Bulbul Pycnonotus barbatus. We test how annual cycle stage interacts with a key seasonal environmental variable, rainfall, to determine immunity at population and individual level. If immune challenge varies with precipitation, we might expect immune function to be higher in the wet season due to increased environmental productivity. If breeding or moult imposes resource constraints on birds, depending on or independent of precipitation, we might expect lower immune indices during breeding or moult. 3. We sampled blood from 818 birds in four annual cycle stage categories: breeding, moult, simultaneous breeding and moulting, or neither. We quantified indices of innate immunity (haptoglobin, nitric oxide (NOx) and ovotransferrin concentrations, and haemagglutination and haemolysis titres) over two annual cycles of wet and dry seasons. 4. Environment (but not annual cycle stage or interactions between both) explained variation in all immune indices, except NOx. NOx concentration differed between annual cycle stages but not between seasons. However, within the wet season, haptoglobin, NOx, ovotransferrin and haemolysis differed significantly between breeding and non-breeding females. Aside from some recorded inconsistences, population level results were largely similar to results within individuals that were measured repeatedly. Unexpectedly, most immune indices were higher in the dry season and during breeding. 5. Higher immune indices may be explained if fewer or poorer quality resources force birds to increase social contact, thereby exposing individuals to novel antigens and increased infection risk, independently of environmental productivity. Breeding birds may also show higher immunity if less immune-competent and/or infected females omit breeding. We conclude that seasonal environmental variation impacts immunity more directly in natural animal populations than via resource trade-offs. In addition, immune indices were more often variable within than among individuals, but some indices are characteristic of individuals, and so may offer selective advantages if heritable.
Data from: Temporal variation in plant-pollinator networks from seasonal tropical environments: higher specialization when resources are scarce
The temporal dynamics of plant phenology and pollinator abundance across seasons should influence the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks. Nevertheless, such dynamics are seldom considered, especially for diverse tropical networks. Here, we evaluated the temporal variation of four plant-pollinator networks in two seasonal ecosystems in Central Brazil (Cerrado and Pantanal). Data were gathered on a monthly basis over one year for each network. We characterized seasonal and temporal shifts in plant-pollinator interactions, using temporally discrete networks. We predicted that the greater floral availability in the rainy season would allow for finer partitioning of the floral niche by the pollinators, i.e., higher specialization patterns as previously described across large spatial gradients. Contrary to these expectations, we found that dry season networks, although characterized by lower floral resource richness and abundance, showed higher levels of network-wide interaction partitioning (complementary specialization and modularity). For nestedness and species level indices, though, this between-seasons difference was not consistent. Reduced resource availability in the dry season may promote higher interspecific competition among pollinators leading to reduced niche overlap, thus explaining the increase in specialization. Importantly, we also show that targeted data collection during peak flowering generates higher estimates of network specialization. Hence, depending on the period of data collection, different structural values for the networks of interactions may be found. Synthesis: Our study suggests that networks of tropical environments have structural properties that vary according to seasons, which should be taken into account in the description of the complex systems of interactions between plants and their pollinators in these areas.
Data from: Life on the edge: a comparative study of eco-physiological adaptations of frogs to tropical semiarid environments
A key goal of ecology and evolution is to understand the relative contributions of environment and history in determining the geographic distribution of organisms. For the Neotropical lowlands, where temperatures are similar across landscapes, we hypothesize that water balance may be a critical but understudied factor in determining the distribution of species. Amphibians are especially sensitive to variation in precipitation due to their permeable skin. Here we focused on lowland frogs of north-western South America and investigated variation among 17 species in potentially important ecologically relevant performance variables related to water balance, and tested for possible adaptations to semiarid conditions within species. We studied frogs from coastal xeric, savannah and wet forest biomes under common laboratory conditions and quantified rates of evaporative water loss, rates of water uptake, and variation in water-searching behavior and performance. We found significant differences in all three performance variables among species, even after accounting for shared evolutionary history. A phylogenetic ANCOVA showed that categorizing species by ecological habits (terrestrial vs. arboreal) explained much of the eco-performance trait variation among species. Secondarily, environment explained additional variation, e.g., coastal xeric species showed reduced rates of water loss and terrestrial savannah amphibians showed lower rates of water uptake. Conspecific frog populations from different biomes exhibited similar performance. We compare our results with previous studies and conclude that ecological habit is the principle factor that predicts eco-physiological trait variation and the possible geographic distribution of lowland Neotropical frogs.
Data from: Ecosystem biomonitoring with eDNA: metabarcoding across the tree of life in a tropical marine environment
Effective marine management requires comprehensive data on the status of marine biodiversity. However, efficient methods that can document biodiversity in our oceans are currently lacking. Environmental DNA (eDNA) sourced from seawater offers a new avenue for investigating the biota in marine ecosystems. Here, we investigated the potential of eDNA to inform on the breadth of biodiversity present in a tropical marine environment. Directly sequencing eDNA from seawater using a shotgun approach resulted in only 0.34% of 22.3 million reads assigning to eukaryotes, highlighting the inefficiency of this method for assessing eukaryotic diversity. In contrast, using 'tree of life' (ToL) metabarcoding and 20-fold fewer sequencing reads, we could detect 287 families across the major divisions of eukaryotes. Our data also show that the best performing 'universal' PCR assay recovered only 44% of the eukaryotes identified across all assays, highlighting the need for multiple metabarcoding assays to catalogue biodiversity. Lastly, focusing on the fish genus Lethrinus, we recovered intra- and inter-specific haplotypes from seawater samples, illustrating that eDNA can be used to explore diversity beyond taxon identifications. Given the sensitivity and low cost of eDNA metabarcoding we advocate this approach be rapidly integrated into biomonitoring programs.
Data from: Ecology of the growth of Anolis nebulosus (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in a seasonal tropical environment in the Chamela region, Jalisco, Mexico
Juvenile growth rates are thought to be restricted by available food resources. In animals that grow throughout the year, such as tropical lizards, growth is therefore predicted to be faster during the rainy season. We test this prediction using a population of Anolis nebulosus by describing the growth trajectories of both sexes using nonlinear regression models, and we then correlate the growth rates of individuals with food available in the environment, precipitation and temperature. The Von Bertalanffy model fit the growth rates of the females better, while the logistic-by-length model fit the males better. According to both models, the males grew faster than females, reaching slightly smaller sizes at adulthood. Males reached sexual maturity when 35 mm long, at an age of seven months, and females matured at 37 mm (SVL), taking nine months to reach this size. In 1989, juvenile males and females grew more in both seasons (rainy and dry) than adults; for 1990 there were no differences by season or between age classes. These results are interesting since in the 1989 and 1990 rainy seasons, practically the same orders of prey and the greatest abundance of prey available in the environment were registered. A possible explanation could be that predation was more intense in 1990 than in 1989. The influence of food, temperature and humidity in A. nebulosus shows little evidence to support our working hypothesis, mainly due to the low growth variation observed in 1990, so, we believe that the growth pattern of this species can be a complex combination of ecological and genetic factors.
Supplementary material 2 from: Gehrke B (2018) Staying cool: preadaptation to temperate climates required for colonising tropical alpine-like environments. PhytoKeys 96: 111-125. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.96.13353
List of genera investigated for the analysis including information on generic distribution, coding and references to the literature used :
Morphological and behavioural differences facilitate tropical butterfly persistence in variable environments
<p>1. The thermal biology of ectotherms largely determines their abundance and distributions. In general, tropical species inhabiting warm and stable thermal environments tend to have low tolerance to cold and variable environments, which may restrict their expansion into temperate climates. However, the distribution of some tropical species does extend into cooler areas such as tropical borders and high elevation tropical mountains. Behavioural and morphological differences may therefore play important roles in facilitating tropical species to cope with cold and variable climates at tropical edges.</p> <p>2. We used field-validated biophysical models to estimate body temperatures of butterflies across elevational gradients at three sites in southern China and assessed the contribution of behavioural and morphological differences in facilitating their persistence in tropical and temperate climates. We investigated the effects of temperature on the activity of 4,844 individuals of 144 butterfly species along thermal gradients and tested whether species of different climatic affinities -- tropical and widespread (distributed in both temperate and tropical regions) -- differed in their thermoregulatory strategies (i.e. basking). In addition, we tested whether thermally-related morphology, or the strength of solar radiation (when butterflies were recorded) were related to such differences.</p> <p>3. We found that activities of tropical species were restricted (low abundance) at low air temperatures compared to widespread species. Active tropical species were also more likely to bask at cooler body temperatures than widespread species. Heat gain from behavioural thermoregulation was higher for tropical species (when accounting for species abundance), and heat gain correlated with larger thorax widths but not with measured solar radiation.</p> <p>4. Our results indicate that physiological intolerance to cold temperatures in tropical species may be compensated through behavioural and morphological responses in thermoregulation in variable sub-tropical environments. Increasing climatic variability with climate change may render tropical species more vulnerable to cold weather extremes compared to widespread species that are more physiologically suited to variable environments.</p>
Data from: Temporal variation in plant-pollinator networks from seasonal tropical environments: higher specialization when resources are scarce
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.